December 11, 2008
Th hazards of bailing out Car 1.0
Image source: greenerist.com
There is a brilliant piece by Thomas Friedman in the IHT today on the US auto bail-out and what Joseph Schumpeter once referred to as the process of creative destruction. He writes about the Better Place electric car charging system and how this is set to replace the petroleum-based model. The best paragraph is reproduced below:
The bail-out has to proceed for the sake of the people who would otherwise lose there jobs, and the knock-on effect this would have on the rest of the economy. However, it would be a lot smarter if financial assistance were tied to the development of Car 2.0. This way, people would not only keep their jobs now, but they would be safe in the future as well.
December 06, 2008
The WaterMill
Image source: blog.silive.com
A report on CNN today makes reference to a small Canadian company, Element Four, that has developed a machine for producing water by extracting moisture from the air. This principle is not new, and a number of companies have been conducting R & D in this area. The 'WaterMill' produced by Element Four is relatively low cost -- currently USD1300 -- and it may come down to around USD300. Apparently, the WaterMill mounts to the exterior of your house and can produce up to 12 litres a day. On the downside, there has to be relative humidity greater than 35% for this to work. This is good news for people living in Brisbane (where the humidity does not drop below 60% even in the drier months) but the device is of more limited use in places like Cairo where relative humidity is above 35% far less frequently.
December 02, 2008
The poverty of economic history
Image source: recessionhistory.info
The biggest problem with governments is that they are run by politicians whose first concern is the electoral cycle. The second biggest problem is that these politicians tend to have advisors with economics degrees from top universities where the economic history courses have limited appeal alongside the finance-oriented courses that are viewed as 'hard science'. It is for this reason that history repeats itself as governments do not learn from previous mistakes. The fact that Paul Krugman feels compelled to write an article in the IHT today defending the case for a large fiscal deficit is testimony to this, as is the almost apologetic way the Rudd government in Australia has mentioned the 'd' word in recent days.
November 21, 2008
The not-so-lame duck president?
Image source: cbsnews.com
Back in August, it was revealed that the Bush Administration planned to relax endangered species rules that would cut out the advice of government scientists who have had an input on such matters for 35 years. If successful, Bush would accomplish through rule changes what conservative Republicans have been unable to achieve in Congress; namely, ending environmental reviews that developers blame for delays and cost increases on projects. Undeterred by the 250,000 objections received by lawmakers and environmentalists, the Interior Department has been rushing to bring in the rule changes by 21November, or Obama can undo them with the stroke of a pen when he is sworn on 20 January. However, if the new rules do go through, they will be difficult to overturn since it would require the new administration to restart the rule-making process. The only way to avoid this scenario would be for Congress to reverse the rule changes through the Congressional Review Act; a law that allows review of new federal regulations. This law has only been used once in the last 12 years, but given the huge antipathy towards the Bush Administration, there would appear to be a high probability that this law will be employed to block the endangered species rules and other 'last minute' regulation changes.
November 20, 2008
Another nail in the coffin of biodiversity?
Image source: no-pest.com
When I was a kid growing up in the UK, the humble sparrow was often looked upon as a pest. Since the mid-1980s, however, its numbers have been steadily falling. A report on BBC news today reveals that the sparrow population is estimated to have fallen by 68% in the past three decades.
November 11, 2008
Blogging in Burma
Image source: lanka-msma.blogspot.com
The Australian reports today that Nay Phone Latt, arrested in January of this year in a round up of activists following the September 2007 protests against the Burmese military junta, has been jailed for 20 years on account of his blogging activities. This draconian sentence is a clear indication of the lengths the regime is prepared to go to in order to prevent Burmese bloggers from getting information to the outside world. Time to give to Amnesty International.
November 09, 2008
Where were you when ...
Image source: nytimes.com
November 4 2008 will be one of those days when you will always remember where you were, or what you doing when you heard Barack Obama had won the US Presidential election. It's not just the end of eight years under George W Bush, but the dawn of a new era that provides hope to so many ordinary people in the US and around the world. The image above of the daughter reaching out to her mother, overcome with emotion after Obama's victory, is described by Judith Warner as 'the future reaching out to heal the past'. This is the promise that the Obama administration holds. There is no question that it will have to rail against a system dominated by vested interests, and it may fall victim to these interests, but at least there is hope; a rare commodity in the lives of so many people.
November 04, 2008
A green 'new deal'
Image source: neweconomics.org
I am a little perturbed by the reactionary position taken by some on the right of the political spectrum, that the economic downturn is reason enough to shelve plans for ecological tax reform (e.g. the Liberal Party in Australia). On the contrary, the economic crisis is an opportunity to do something to engineer radical change, hence the appeal of what some people are referring to as the Green New Deal. The New Economics Foundation in the UK is one group that is doing some interesting work in this area.
October 06, 2008
Taliban takeover
Image source: easterncampaign.wordpress.com
Somehow I don't think it will get too much airplay in the US presidential elections, but the Taliban are flexing their muscles in the North West Frontier Province (NWFP) of Pakistan, and are no longer hiding in the hills. They are coming down from the tribal areas near the Afghan border all the way into Peshawar, terrorising everyone in their wake. I wonder what Sarah Palin's view is on this.
September 30, 2008
Joshua B. Jeyaretnam
Image source: straitstimes.com
A sad day, indeed. I hope, in death, he will get the recognition in Singapore that was denied him in life.
